Corona Boy’s Supremacy Repeats like Clockwork
By Irving Garibaldi
The boy’s race opened up and almost immediately condensed into a train rounding the northeast corner of the park led by a pack of gutsy Centennial runners and, amongst a few others, Corona Del Sol’s Ryan Normand (Sr.). Meanwhile, deeper in the peloton were fellow Aztecs Nathan Rodriguez (Sr.) and Marcus Wheeler (Jr.) on a very conservative run. Over the next mile, the field became strung out with Lucky Schreiner (Campo Verde, Jr.), leading the CDS trio. Tyler Day (Jr.) from Mesquite followed close behind, and amongst the flow was a tight knit group of Mesa Mountain View Boys working to maintain the rift between Corona’s numbers 3 and 4. Through the second mile Schreiner powered on to open a gap between himself and Normand while Rodriguez sat comfortably in third with Wheeler several meters behind. Individual leaders Tyler Day and Emmanuel Hidalgo (McClintock, Jr.) followed a ways back, apart from a torrent of athletes including Mesa Mtn. View, Rincon, and Highland, all clumping together for the best scores possible. By the 3 mile mark, Rodriguez had shot to the lead and rocketed down the path to a winning time of 15:27. Normand followed 3 seconds behind, but third place was snatched by Schreiner who had gone toe to toe with the big Orange Machine for a massive PR of 15:42. With Wheeler rounding out the triple threat of Aztecs in the top 4, they made certain of their dominance once more at Tumbleweed Park.
My opinion:
Nathan seemed to be far more tactical this time around. While the race ended with his fastest time at Tumbleweed Park, it was a little disappointing to see him hold back for so much of the race. I much preferred watching Campo Verde’s Lucky Schreiner roll the dice as a front runner to charge through his fastest time ever.